Aerilon is primarily an agricultural world, known as the "food basket" of the Twelve Colonies. Despite this, Aerilon is considered to be one of the poorest Colonies (TRS: "Dirty Hands"). Its capital city is Gaoth.

Contents

Government

Aerilon's government provides little or no support for health care, education, or other social infrastructure services. However, Aerilonians accept police with broad powers to detain, imprison, and torture suspects.

Economy

Although Aerilon's soil is not very fertile and requires intensive cultivation to achieve plentiful harvests, it is primarily an agricultural world. The capital, Gaoth, started as a prairie town on intersecting cattle trails. Aerilon also has tylium mines, and Promethea, one of the larger cities on the planet, was founded as a mining town on the edge of a region known as the Badlands (Blood and Chrome, deleted scenes).

History

Culture

While imprisoned on Galactica, Gaius Baltar talks extensively about Aerilon, confirming that it, not Caprica, was his birth world. He imitates the speech mannerisms of a stereotypical native, a farmer who likes to work with his hands, and "go down to the pub for a pint"[1] and have a fight at the end of the night. In doing this, Baltar puts on a strong raspy "Aerilon" accent[2] (TRS: "Dirty Hands").

Likewise, the musical and visual arts of Aerilon are informed by simple, harsh agrarian and working-class sensibilities.

Aerilon's prime educational institution, the University of Aerilon, is located in Gaoth. Promethea A&M is based in the mining boomtown of Promethea (Blood and Chrome, deleted scenes).

A photo of a grief-stricken soldier staring out at the ruins of Aerilon's capital hangs behind President Roslin's desk and on the bulkhead of a pilot ready room on Galactica. The pilots touch the photo for luck and in a sign of respect as they leave the room. This photo of Aerilon gives viewers one of the few visual depictions of life on a colony other than Caprica.

Publications

Locations

Notes

The spelling of this colony is sometimes inconsistent in the Re-imagined Series' official cast and crew notes and episode content, in the same way that the Original Series had inconsistent spellings of "Centurion" and "Centurian". The colony is spelled "Aerilon" in the episodes "Home, Part I" and "The Son Also Rises" in official Colonial documentation, as well as placards from "Colonial Day" and various Season 4 episodes. Further research into this has lead Battlestar Wiki to choose the more prevalent spelling that appears on various props in the series, as well as spellings from the scripts: "Aerilon".

References

↑ Baltar's use of the term "pub" and "pint" suggest that Aerilon's culture is reminiscent of that of the workers of Ireland, Scotland or England. Baltar's use of a unit of liquid measurement called a "jp" in the episode "Water" and "pint" suggests that the Colonials may have several units of liquid volume. The term "pint" is also a nickname for a glass of beer, which often is measured in Imperial pints.

↑ Actor James Callis, who normally speaks in his own native accent, adopted an accent similar to a Yorkshire accent for Baltar's "native Aerilon."